Friday, September 26, 2008

West Coast Law School Blawgger Calls for Advice!

I went to law school on the west coast and am not sure what to expect from the Maine bar. How do most people study? Would you recommend taking BarBri, or doing self-study? Any suggestions on how to get hold of bar review materials?
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3 comments:

Justin B Weiss said...

I had great success by using MicroMash for the MBE portion of the test and self-study for the Maine-specific portions. Bar Bri is essentially the only game in town for structured classes, and the classes only serve the July sitting. If you take Feb, you have to self study anyway.

The first thing to learn about the quirks of Maine's test is that there are "infamous" Questions 1 and 2 (Civ Pro/Crim Pro/App Pro) and (Pro Res/Evidence) that require a different kind of test prep than perhaps the other essays. Particularly in Question 1, you need to be familiar enough with the Rules to be ready to cite applicable provisions by number, although you are given a copy of the Rules to which you can refer during the test. However, the time constraints placed on those essays make these questions challenging to complete.

September 27, 2008 at 6:04 AM
The Chair said...

The potential subjects for the essay questions are set forth in Maine Bar Examination Rule 10 (d)(1). I studied for the bar (and passed on the first try) by studying each and every subject listed as if I was going to take a final exam on the subject.

For someone who attended law school out of state, this may be a little harder as, though some subjects would be the same (constitutional law), others would not (creditors' rights).

I recommend tracking down a Maine Law student in order to access some materials that would bring out the things unique to Maine.

Another suggestion would be to track down a new lawyer in Maine and see what materials they have from when they took the exam. I, for one, still have, in my office, the notebook of materials on the potential subjects that I put together for studying the bar.

September 29, 2008 at 5:57 AM
Frank Bishop said...

I concur with what was said above. The last five years (or so) of Maine Bar exams are available on the Maine Board of Bar Examiners website. I read through questions 1 and 2 of each of these exams and outlined answers with my notes in front of me. These sample exams also include sample answers.

You will need a copy of the Maine Rules of civil, criminal and appellate procedure, which are available at the USM bookstore.

October 7, 2008 at 7:07 AM

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